Helen was one of six children; two other daughters Louise Phobe, and Persis E., and three sons David H., Augustus, and Albus.

Blanchard demonstrated an inventive turn of mind at an early age, but there is no indication that she received any mechanical or technical education, despite her patents being involved mostly in these subjects.

As a result, Helen Blanchard and her family sold their ancestral home at the corner of High St. and Pleasant St., west side.

Later, she would go on to use the proceeds from her profitable ventures in Philadelphia to repurchase the property in Maine that her family sold after her father's passing.

[8] She moved to New York in the early 1890s, and continued to patent a variety of inventions, including a pencil sharpener [9] and a hat sewing machine.

[11] Notably, one of her zig-zag sewing machines is now on display in the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, DC.